But published book excerpts and interview leaks - with details of McGreevey's gay extramarital affair and double life as married father and closeted homosexual - are the buzz of the region.

Yesterday, after reading salacious accounts in newspapers and hearing TV and radio reports, some residents and political leaders criticized the former governor for airing intimate matters embarrassing to his former wife and his family.

Others blasted him for trying to give a state counterterrorism job to a man McGreevey identified as his lover - and attempting to profit from his public outing as a "gay American."

"I think Jim would have served himself a little better just to continue to go on and build his life," he said, adding: "I think the stuff that gets off track and into, you know, prurience, is not exactly positive for him or even the things he wants to have defended in public life."

State Senate President Richard J. Codey (D., Essex) saw the book this way: " 'Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, and let me tell you some of those sins.' He didn't tell everything.

State Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance (R., Hunterdon) said he read excerpts of the book, in which McGreevey describes steamy sex romps with a man he hired to direct New Jersey's homeland security.

Said Lance: "The book I'll be reading this autumn about a New Jersey governor is Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton's book on the inner working of the 9/11 Commission."

"I wouldn't give the book two seconds of my time," said Kerry Yobb, a Cherry Hill resident and owner of the Dutch Pretzel Bakery, set to open this fall at the Grand Marketplace in Willingboro. "I think he is mentally sick and his book is disgusting.

"If you are going to discuss your sex life, it should be between you and partner - not with the rest of the world. I'm sorry to say he was our governor."

Picking up CDs at marsRED, a music store in Haddonfield, Cheryl Smith said she was "alarmed" by McGreevey's behavior. She and Scott Wellborn, a clerk at the shop, were especially galled by McGreevey's forthcoming appearance on Oprah.

"I hope he realizes the repercussions for his family," said Smith, 22, of Blackwood. "His daughter will read the book and probably watch the show one day. It was a very selfish decision on his part."

"He's promoting the fact that he cheated on his wife. People had forgotten about him, and now he's saying, 'I'm still here,' and everyone will watch."

"To be as honest as he's been is incredible," said Segal. "We knew at PGN that Jim McGreevey was gay [before his announcement], but we don't do outings. I was waiting for the plane crash.

"He could have denied the charges and stood there with his wife and life goes on. But he faced up to who he was and was honest. That's very rare in politics. He can be a role model."

Segal said he could not defend McGreevey's offering a state job to the man McGreevey says was his lover, Golan Cipel, who the former governor claimed threatened to file a sexual-harassment lawsuit against him in an extortion plot.

"I can't defend any politician doing that," he said, adding that McGreevey's experience mirrors "everybody else in that age group who have struggled for many years. The only difference is he went public; he was a public figure... . I think he is finding his way out of the forest."

"I don't care that he is gay. People should be able to do what they want," said Marian Stroh, 68, a Somers Point resident. "The only thing I object to is that he put the safety of an entire state in jeopardy when he gave a job to his unqualified lover."

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